Special Assault Team
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The is a
police tactical unit A police tactical unit (PTU) is a specialized police unit trained and equipped to handle situations that are beyond the capabilities of ordinary law enforcement units because of the level of violence (or risk of violence) involved. The tasks of a ...
maintained by individual Japanese
prefectural police In the Law enforcement in Japan, law enforcement system in Japan, are prefecture-level Law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies responsible for Police, policing, law enforcement, and public security within their respective Prefectures of ...
forces and supervised by the
National Police Agency National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Canada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: National Revolut ...
. It is a national-level
counterterrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and Intelligence agency, intelligence ...
unit that cooperates with territorial-level Anti-Firearms Squads and Counter-NBC Terrorism Squads. Most information on the unit is confidential, and its existence was not officially revealed until 1996. The SAT is officially known in Japanese as simply and individual teams officially take the name of the police to which they are assigned; an example would be the for the SAT unit assigned to the
Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department The , known locally as simply the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), is the prefectural police of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Founded in 1874, the TMPD is the largest police force in Japan by number of officers, with a staff of more than 4 ...
.


Background

By the mid-1970s, Japanese law enforcement already established the , part-time sniper squads being launched as a response to the Kin Kiro Incident in 1968. Assault sections were later established in some urban squads; these squads were predecessors of the Anti-firearms squads, but they were only part-time
SWAT A SWAT (''Special Weapons and Tactics'') team is a generic term for a police tactical unit within the United States, though the term has also been used by other nations. SWAT units are generally trained, equipped, and deployed to res ...
teams at this time. In response to the Dhaka Incident, the
National Police Agency National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Canada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: National Revolut ...
decided to set up full-time anti-terrorism special units at the
Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department The , known locally as simply the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), is the prefectural police of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Founded in 1874, the TMPD is the largest police force in Japan by number of officers, with a staff of more than 4 ...
and the Osaka Prefectural Police Department in secret. The Tokyo unit was established as the of its 6th Riot Police Unit and the Osaka unit as the "Zero" Company of its 2nd Riot Police Unit. The Tokyo unit was nicknamed SAP (Special Armed Police), and it was recognized as the official name around 1982 and the flag was awarded. Several SAP officers were sent to West Germany to be trained by GSG-9 operators due to their experience in resolving the hijacking of
Lufthansa Flight 181 Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230C jet airliner (reg. D-ABCE) named ''Landshut'', was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Fr ...
. They were instructed on using MP5s, which they first used in the 1980s. In 1996, it was officially announced that the tactical units had been organized, and their unit name were changed to SAT, Special Assault Teams. In addition to the MPD and Osaka teams, additional teams for the
Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...
,
Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...
, Chiba, Aichi, and
Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...
Prefectural Police were also established. In 2005, a team of the Okinawa Prefectural Police was established, and existing units were also reinforced.


Organization


Structure

SAT teams are set up at eight prefectural police agencies. In most prefectures they belong to the Riot Police Unit, but in the MPD it is directly under its First Security Division, Security Bureau, and the Security Division under the Osaka Prefectural Police. Total strength is about 300 officers. It is said that three teams in the Metropolitan Police Department, two teams in the Osaka Prefectural Police Department, and one team in each of the other Prefectural Police are set up. Each team consists of a command
section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...
, an entry section, a sniper support section, and a technical support section.


Recruitment and training

Members are recruited from Riot Police Units. When the unit was founded, the members were selected from rangers, rescue specialists, snipers and martial artists. It is said that they will be subject to inspection and inspection for officers under 30 years old. In order to maintain physical strength, the period of service is assumed to be approximately 5 years. SAT operators who are due to end their post are usually transferred to other departments in the Security Bureau, but some are transferred to the
Special Investigation Team are Police tactical unit, tactical detective units of Japanese prefectural police forces. Special Investigation Teams are maintained by prefectural police headquarters (PPH) and are trained to handle critical incidents including criminal investi ...
(SIT) of the
criminal investigation department The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is the branch of a police force to which most plainclothes criminal investigation, detectives belong in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth nations. A force's CID is disti ...
to introduce their SWAT-based tactics for the department. Although SAT training is enigmatic, a retired SAP member recalled that Airborne Ranger Courses of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force,
counter-insurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN, or NATO spelling counter-insurgency) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the ac ...
, and
air assault Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, such as helicopters, to seize and hold key terrain that has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind enemy l ...
training had been conducted. Nowadays, SAT has training facilities in six locations nationwide, and training at
Yumenoshima is a district in Kōtō, Tokyo, Japan, consisting of an artificial island Land reclamation, built using waste landfill in Tokyo Bay. It is not the first such island in the bay (see Umi-no-mori :ja:海の森公園). At current fill rates, there w ...
is sometimes released to reporters. There are also exchanges with overseas police forces, at least with joint training with the German
GSG 9 , formerly , is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei). The unit is responsible for combatting terrorism and violent crime, including organized crime. In addition to its headquarters location in Sankt Augustin-H ...
. 10 SAT officers were placed under training by Queensland Police's Specialist Service Branch in Queensland, Australia. The SAT does joint exercises with the SFGp. The SAT also conducted joint training in 2014 with the Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza.


Equipment

In addition to standard service handguns, the SAP units used Heckler & Koch P9S pistols as their main sidearms. After being reorganized into the SAT, usage of Heckler & Koch USP and Smith & Wesson Model 3913 have been confirmed, there is information that
Glock 19 Glock (; stylized as GLOCK) is a brand of polymer-Receiver (firearms), framed, Recoil operation#Short recoil operation, short-recoil-operated, striker-fired, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer G ...
,
SIG Sauer P226 The SIG Sauer P226 is a full-sized service pistol made by SIG Sauer. This model is available in four chamberings: the 9×19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, .357 SIG, or .22 Long Rifle. It has the same mechanism of operation as the SIG Sauer P220, but ...
and
Beretta 92 The Beretta 92 (also Beretta 96 and Beretta 98) is a series of semi-automatic pistols designed and manufactured by Beretta of Italy. History Carlo Beretta, Giuseppe Mazzetti and Vittorio Valle, all experienced firearms designers, contributed to ...
Vertec are adopted. The SAT used
Heckler & Koch MP5 The Heckler & Koch MP5 (, ) is a submachine gun developed in the 1960s by German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It uses a similar modular design to the Heckler & Koch G3, and has over 100 variants and clones, including selective fire, Se ...
A5, MP5SD6, MP5K
submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...
s. There is also information that SAT units have adopted Howa Type 89
assault rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...
s and
M4 carbine The M4 carbine (officially Carbine, Caliber 5.56 mm, M4) is a 5.56×45mm NATO assault rifle developed in the United States during the 1980s. It is a shortened version of the M16A2 assault rifle. The M4 is extensively used by the US mi ...
s. The Howa Golden Bear, then M1500 as their
sniper rifle A sniper rifle is a high-precision, long range shooting, long-range rifle. Requirements include high accuracy, reliability, mobility, concealment, and optics, for anti-personnel weapon, anti-personnel, anti-materiel rifle, anti-materiel and sur ...
. The Howa Type 64 rifle was also used as
designated marksman rifle A designated marksman rifle (DMR) is a modern telescopic sight, scoped high-Accuracy and precision, precision rifle used by infantry in the designated marksman (DM) role. It generally fills the engagement effective range, range gap between a serv ...
s. Later on, the
Heckler & Koch PSG1 The Heckler & Koch PSG1 (''Präzisionsschützengewehr'', German for "precision marksman rifle") is a semi-automatic designated marksman rifle designed and produced by the German company Heckler & Koch. Development This rifle is said to have ...
and L96A1 also have been deployed. SAT teams operate special and unmarked bulletproof cars. The first units stood up in the 1970s had its operators forced to initially purchase tactical equipment with their own money through mail-in ads in military magazines.


Operational history

The "Zero" Company of the Osaka Prefectural Police had its first known incident on January 26, 1979 when they were deployed during a
Mitsubishi Bank The was a major Japanese bank headquartered in Tokyo, founded in 1880. For much of the 20th century it was one of the largest Japanese banks, together with Dai-Ichi Bank, Mitsui Bank, Sumitomo Bank, and Yasuda / Fuji Bank. It served as the ma ...
hostage incident in Osaka. In the incident, they shot dead Akiyoshi Umekawa after he gunned down two employees and two policemen. As the SWAT ability of other departments improved, the SAT became the "last ditch" of the Security Bureau of the
National Police Agency National Police may refer to the national police forces of several countries: *Afghanistan: Afghan National Police *Haiti: Haitian National Police *Canada: Royal Canadian Mounted Police *Colombia: National Police of Colombia *Cuba: National Revolut ...
, and opportunities to conduct direct domestic action decreased. In the Gulf Crisis of 1990, the SAP unit was dispatched to
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...
for
non-combatant evacuation operation A Non-combatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) is an operation conducted to Emergency evacuation, evacuate civilians from another country, generally due to a deteriorating security situation. Australia *2021 - Fall of Kabul (2021), Afghanistan Chin ...
. During the Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Peru, the SAT had simulated raids on retaking buildings similar to the Japanese Embassy as a possible counter-measure to a similar incident on Japanese soil. On June 21, 1995, All Nippon Airways Flight 857 was hijacked at the
Hakodate Airport is an airport located eastAIS Japan
of Hakodate Station in Hakodate, a city in Hokkaidō, Japan. It is owned by the Mi ...
in Hokkaido by a lone hijacker named . This incident marked the first time that the Japanese Air Self-Defense Forces cooperated with the SAP by providing Kawasaki C-1 aircraft as means of transportation from Haneda Airport. SAP officers assisted Hokkaido Prefectural Police officers in storming the plane. In May 2000, the Osaka and Fukuoka SAT assisted detectives of the Hiroshima Prefectural Police when they stormed a hijacked
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
in Fukuoka in the Neomugicha incident, capturing the lone hijacker alive. Due to the self-defense requirements as stipulated in the Law Concerning Execution of Duties of Police Officials, it took more than 15 hours for the hostage crisis to end. Stun grenades were used in the operation. In September 2003, the Aichi SAT unit was deployed to resolve a hostage incident. However, the hostage-taker committed suicide in an explosion which killed three and injured 41 others. On September 10, 2005, Okinawa was established for a SAT unit to be operational. According to the NPA, the presence of American troops and the region's geography were taken into consideration in creating a unit to be stationed there, especially after Al-Qaeda had made terrorist threats against Japan in the past. In May 2007, in a hostage crisis case in Nagoya, an ex-yakuza gangster named was captured after he killed , an Aichi SAT operative. Prior to shooting Hayashi, Obayashi shot a uniformed officer who was called in to respond to a domestic violence incident at 4 in the afternoon. The Aichi
SIT Sitting is a List of human positions, basic action and resting position in which the body weight is supported primarily by the bony ischial tuberosities with the buttocks in contact with the ground or a horizontal surface such as a chair seat, ...
was in charge with the Aichi SAT assisting, but the stray bullets hit the SAT operative. Hayashi, an inspector in the Aichi Prefectural Police, was the first SAT officer to be
killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...
. His death forced National Public Safety Commission Chairman Kensei Mizote to issue a press report, stating that SAT equipment would be checked to see if it was responsible for Hayashi's death. The SAT Support Staff (SSS) was created in the wake of the hostage taking in Aichi Prefecture. They are in charge of coordinating with the prefectural police criminal investigation department, assisting the police chief and coordinating liaison with the National Police Agency Security Bureau. On December 14, 2007, a shooting spree occurred at the Renaissance Sports Club in Sasebo,
Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
, when Masayoshi Magome used a shotgun to kill two persons and wound six others. The Nagasaki Prefectural Police Anti-Firearms Squad and Fukuoka SAT were sent in to intervene in the shooting. On February 9, 2015, Japanese media suggested that the SAT can potentially be dispatched to work alongside officers from the Terrorism Response Team-Tactical Wing for Overseas. On December 22, 2015, TMPD and Kanagawa SAT units have conducted joint exercises in the wake of the upcoming G7 summit. The SAT was deployed in May 2016 at the 42nd G7 summit, providing security alongside the Special Boarding Unit. In June 2021, the SAT was deployed on a training operation to practice anti-terrorist operations in Tokyo as part of Tokyo Olympics security. When
Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...
visited Japan during the 49th G7 summit, SAT operators participated as part of his protection detail in consideration of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
. On May 25, 2023, the Kanagawa Prefectural Police's SAT unit was deployed during the 2023 Nagano attack based on requests from the Nagano Prefectural Police (NPP).


Notes


References


Books

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Articles

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External links


Special Operations link


{{Japanese Special forces, state=collapsed Government agencies established in 1996 1996 establishments in Japan Police tactical units
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...